Second Contract
by Shiro0493
Summary: Two professional assassins were reported missing while following a mysterious contract in England. And the dealer, Lovro, thought that it was the perfect time for his newest protege to take the stage. Nagisa Shiota was about to discover that perhap killing an octopus that could move at mach speed wasn't the most, or the only interesting contract during his young career after all.


At almost eleven o'clock on a warm August night, two young men made their ways out of Heathrow airport and hailed a taxi idling on the side of the street, before one of them - the short one with long blue hair, gave the driver a piece of paper, on which their destination was written.

The driver gave them a warm smile, nodded his head before walking out of the car to help them with their luggage. The blue haired man's suitcase was a small one and didn't weight much, there probably were just clothes inside. His companion, however, a slightly taller man with spiky white hair that looked way too wild even for the standard of today's youth, was hauling two big, sturdy suitcases all by himself, and on his back was a black backpack that looked like it was about to burst. The fact that he hardly even sweat was quite remarkable in the driver's opinion.

Soon enough, everything was packed into the car's trunk, with the exception of the smallest suitcase, which was placed on the front, next to the driver seat, and they were on their way. It didn't surprise the driver at all, when his two passengers started speaking to each other in what he vaguely recognized as Japanese. After working near the airport for years, he was no longer a stranger when it came to foreigners coming to London, either for work, study, or just looking for a nice vacation.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what brings you lads here?" he asked, trying to open a conversation when the talking behind had subsided. It was kind of like a hobby of his, talking to passengers like this. Once in a while, you got to meet some really interesting characters.

"We just graduated high school and are on a vacation," the blue haired one answered with a friendly smile. His friend, on the other hand, only glanced at him once before turning his attention out of the window, all the while mumbling something to the cellphone pressing to his ear. There was a young female voice replying. His girlfriend, perhap?

"Ah yes, I figured that was the case. Either that or you're here for university. You two look so young," the driver nodded. "And your English is very good."

"We had a very good teacher back in middle school," a fond smile graced his soft, almost feminine face, before it morphed into a slight grimace. "The ones after her… Well, not so much, but the foundation is there."

"Just to show the importance of a good teacher. Most people from Asia that come here usually have some weird accents. You though, you speak like a true Brit."

"Thanks," the man's smile returned. "Uhm… When will we arrive at that address? We rented a flat there but I'm not sure how far it is from the airport."

"In around twenty minutes," said the driver after glancing at the digital clock in front of him. "But why a flat? A small hotel seems much cheaper."

"We like our privacy," he shrugged. "I think my parents know that. Honestly, they asked a friend here in London to rent the place, I didn't know about it until yesterday."

"They're very thoughtful."

"That they are," the man nodded. "So please tell me, where in London should we visit, aside from obvious tourist spots?"

From that point on, their conversation took a turn toward general tourist stuff until it was time for the driver to drop the two men off in front of the place that they were going to stay in. It was a tall building with a well kept flower bed under the window, and a well lit, but small front porch. It wasn't something remarkable that couldn't be seen anywhere else in London. He then received his payment, waved them goodbye, and sped off, all the while wondering if he should have warned them about the strange things that had been happening over the past couple of months.

_Nah, _he reassured himself. _As long as they don't go looking for danger, they'll be fine. Good kids… There's no need to ruin their vacation with baseless rumors._

* * *

"Well, you could have said something, Itona," Nagisa said, still waving at the taxi driver.

"I bowed. You're better at making small talks anyway," Itona blinked, as if surprised at the idea. "Besides, I'm talking to Ritsu."

"Right," Nagisa rolled his eyes. "What are you two talking about?"

"Just covering what we've already known. Come on, let's get these inside and set them up."

"Sure, just a sec," said Nagisa as he reached behind his head and tied his long hair again into a neater ponytail. He then picked up his own suitcase, and one of the two heavier ones. In term of physical strength, he might lose to Itona, but it didn't mean that Nagisa was someone to be scoffed at, despite what his small build was telling you. Practicing parkour on a daily basis helped his strength, agility and stamina to grow. They are getting even better now, ever since Lovro approached Nagisa after his middle school graduation and asked if he wanted to continue his assassin training under him.

It was a tough choice. On one hand, there was still his education to consider. Nagisa knew that his family would want him to continue on to high school, and university eventually. While he was able to break out of the mindset that forced him to please his parents, especially his mum, Nagisa still didn't want to disappoint them, even more so after they had managed to reach an understanding.

Besides, if he were to become an assassin, one day, Nagisa would have to kill someone against their will. Someone who wasn't Koro-sensei. Not that it wasn't heartbreaking enough already.

On the other hand, being an assassin was something he had the talent for. It didn't help the matter that Nagisa actually enjoyed it. Maybe not the actual act of taking away a life, but every second of running, jumping, swinging around from tree to tree, rooftop to rooftop brought him a sense of thrill and freedom. And the tension of hiding away in the dark, preying on his, for now, practicing targets, or even straight up walked right up to their face without them knowing his true intention…

To Nagisa, those feelings were intoxicating. His younger self from a few years ago, who was fresh out of middle school, might not be able to comprehend them, but the drive was there. In the end, after weeks of consideration, Nagisa contacted Lovro and accepted the offer, on the condition that he would be allowed to continue his mundane education as he saw fit. Lovro was not too happy with that, since bringing Nagisa to visit and acquaint himself with assassins from many foreign countries was originally in his plan. Still, the old assassin agreed.

The sounds of Itona inserting the key that they were given and opening the door pulled Nagisa out of his reminiscence. He blinked once, then twice as his friend put his hand on the wall next to the door, searching for a few seconds before flipping a switch and light flooded the dark hallway.

"It's smaller than I thought," was Nagisa's first impression when he took in the sight. The hallway they were in was narrow, but well lit. There wasn't much in the way of decoration though, only one single painting that probably worth nothing on the right wall, and next to the door on the other end was a wooden end table with a fake flower vase on it.

"This is a four story building though. Plenty of room," Ritsu's voice came from Itona's phone, which was switched to speaker mode. "The previous owner of this place put these rooms up as flats for rent. Lovro purchased the whole thing just recently, and now this is a base for his assassins when they have assignment in town. Smog stayed here for awhile before going missing."

"How about Red Eye?"

"He and Smog… don't like each other, and that's putting it mildly," Ritsu answered. "Red Eye didn't stay here. He rented another room in a hotel down the street, just a few minutes on foot from here, under the name Robert McCollum."

"That's a good thing, maybe?" Nagisa and Itona traded a look before both of them shrugged. "If he rented a hotel room, then the receptionists will remember him and maybe his schedule, if we're lucky. But that's for later. We need to unpack all these."

"Bring the suitcase you're holding to the room ahead, Itona. Inside are my essential parts, so please be careful," Ritsu said. "Lovro has prepared a more powerful platform in that room. Please connect me there before doing anything."

Itona just grunted in agreement before turning to Nagisa. "You're holding my equipment then. Just put it in front of the door for me before choosing your room. I'll handle Ritsu's installment by myself."

"And you may not want to choose the room in the basement. That's Smog's lab," Ritsu chimed in.

"Alright, I'll probably just be a nuisance when it comes to tech stuff," Nagisa nodded as he and Itona started hauling the heavy suitcases to Ritsu's room.

* * *

Almost an hour later, Nagisa finally finished taking everything out of his suitcase, which was mostly clothes, and a few bathroom essentials, and put them in their places. He had also taken the chance to have a shower. As he walked back into his room - the last room on the highest floor, drying his long hair with a big towel, Ritsu's voice came from somewhere in the ceiling.

"Nagisa, can you hear me?"

"What the…" Nagisa jumped, almost dropping the towel as his eyes scanned the space above him. "Ritsu? How…?"

"Itona has finished connecting my hardware to Lovro's platform. Now I'm able to be everywhere and have surveillance within this building. Don't worry though, I can't normally enter your room, or receive any image, sound, or any life signal from within. This is an one time occurence. After this, you have to call me from your cellphone if you want to talk to me from your room."

"Understood. Thanks, Ritsu," Nagisa nodded as he continued to walk into the room and threw himself onto the bed next to the window overlooking the street below. It was surprisingly comfortable. "Where is Itona staying?"

"He settled in the room next to mine, probably setting up his workshop in there as we speak. Speaking of which, there's a hidden compartment in the back of your wardrobe. In there you'll find all the equipment you need. Guns, bullets, knives amongst other things."

"I'll check it out later," said Nagisa. A moment of hesitation passed before he spoke up again. "Say, Ritsu. What do you think about this whole assignment? This is the first time Lovro sends me out alone…"

"Nervous?"

"A little, yeah," Nagisa chuckled. "And also because this is so… bizarre. It's supposed to be an easy contract, but two assassins have gone missing. Well, Lovro didn't specify that we have to find them, but I think we should anyway. There's something wrong, and they are the ones who can tell us about it."

"That's what I think too," said the bodiless voice of Ritsu, but Nagisa was sure that if he could see her face on her platform right now, she would be nodding with a smile. "I don't really trust Smog, but Red Eye is a professional. He wouldn't just disappear on a contract."

"You think he was abducted?"

"Or worse. Or he was just forced to leave and is on the run right now. Let's not jump to conclusion until after we have more information."

"Agreed," Nagisa frowned. "But it's still bugging me. It's not an easy feat to get to Red Eye. The only two who managed to do that are Koro-sensei and that fake God of Death, and they are monsters in a league of their own, but this target… this woman…"

"One Bellatrix Lestrange, née Black, born in 1951. Married to Rodolphus Lestrange. Both of them were sent to prison, the name and location of which were classified, for the crime of torturing Alice and Frank Longbottom into insanity. Both of them, however, broke out of prison a few months ago and are now on the run. They are on British government's most wanted list. There have been sightings, however. I think that's where Red Eye and Smog began their tracking."

"With a stellar background like that, no wonder someone wants her dead," Nagisa grimaced. "She is a psychopath, but shouldn't pose a problem for a pro assassin, much less two. Any information on the client?"

"None. Lovro keeps that to himself, but there have been speculations that our client also belongs with the unsavory sort."

"Not surprising," said Nagisa as he stared at the ceiling above. Torrents of thoughts swirling inside his head. "For now, can you please find out as much as you can about this Bellatrix? I'll go down to the hotel tomorrow to see what the staff can tell us about Red Eye."

"Will do," Ritsu answered. "It's late. For now you should get some sleep. I'll go and tell Itona the same before he spends the entire night playing with his workshop."

"Thanks, Ritsu. Good night."

"Good night, Nagisa. I'll take care of the light," the moment her voice came, the ceiling light inside Nagisa's room switched itself off, and the small bed lamp next to his bed lit up, covering the room in a dim orange shade.

"That's pretty impressive," Nagisa murmured to himself before turning in for the night, all the while trying to banish the uneasy thoughts out of his head.

* * *

"What do you mean 'there isn't a Robert McCollum.'?"

Nagisa's surprised voice echoed the lobby of the hotel, making some of the guests stopped on their way and looked at him oddly. Realizing that he was attracting attention, Nagisa gave them an apologetic smile before turning back to the two receptions behind the counter and continued speaking with a lower volume.

"No, really, he must be here, or was here at least. Can you please check again?"

One of the confused receptionists, a woman in her mid twenty, looked down and typed something into her computer, before turning her attention back to Nagisa and shook her head.

"I just checked again, Sir. There isn't any Robert McCollum in our system. If he indeed rented a room here, his information should have been recorded."

"But…" Nagisa spluttered. "Then can you remember any guest with spiky blond hair, tall, and wear red shades most of the time?"

The two behind the counter shared a look and shook their heads together.

"No, we haven't seen anyone like that. We would remember if we had, since not many people wears red shades around here. If you returns here in the afternoon, you can check with people from other shifts as well, but I doubt that they have seen him either."

"I… see," Nagisa frowned. He didn't expect them not to remember anything. After studying under someone like Irina Jelavic, together with his observation skill, Nagisa could tell with almost one hundred percent accuracy if someone was lying, unless they were professional actors or natural liars. The problem was, the two receptionists in front of him weren't lying at all, and he doubted that both of them would belong to one of those two categories.

"Thank you then. Sorry for the inconvenience," he said after awhile, before telling them goodbye and exited the hotel. Nagisa then walked further down the street before he hit a small park with some benches lined up near the entrance. There were some food carts on the other side of the street selling hot dogs, so he bought two and sat down on one of the benches, waiting while looking around and munching on his breakfast.

It was still early, so there weren't many people on the street except for a few exercising, or rushing to their early shift. Quite a peaceful sight in Nagisa's opinion. Being an assassin with some rather unique talents, when it came to day time solo missions, he generally prefer a super crowded area where he could easily blend in, strike, then get out without anyone noticing. That only made Nagisa appreciate the current atmosphere even more though, especially during his free time.

At that moment, Itona showed up and threw himself down next to him.

"Anything good?" His friend asked.

"No, the staff said that Robert didn't check in. There isn't any record of him in their system," said Nagisa as he handed over the second hot dog. Itona accepted it and thanked him before taking a large bite. It wasn't until after he managed to swallow everything that the conversation was resumed.

"That's odd," said Itona while flipping an USB stick through his fingers. "I snuck into their security office and plugged Ritsu into their camera system, digging through the feeds from the past two weeks. See what we found,"

He then handed Nagisa his cellphone. The screen was showing the image from one of the lobby security cameras.

"Hey, isn't that…" Nagisa squinted his eyes, since the quality of the video was bad, and everything was blurry. However, there was no mistake about the man standing in front of the counter with a suitcase.

"Red Eye, yes," Itona nodded and took another bite off of his hot dog.

"And he _was _checking in," Nagisa mumbled. His voice laced with confusion. "And that receptionist… Can't see her face, damned camera… But that hair style… She's the one who talked to me earlier."

"So she lied to you."

"Then she must be a really, I mean _really _good liar, which I doubt she is…"

"It's still a possibility," Ritsu's voice came from the cellphone. Nagisa immediately looked around to see if anyone could hear their conversation, but found none. "Another possibility is that she really forgets. Was made to forget to be exact."

Nagisa and Itona shared a look before Itona said.

"If I'm not wrong, Smog can make a concoction to make you forget about certain things. Any chance of them erasing their own track?"

"I don't think so," Ritsu answered. "Smog's poison can't remove something so exact like all the memory about one specific person, but leave everything else intact. If they had used it, that receptionist would have lost a few days worth of memory at least, since that wasn't the only time she saw Red Eye passing through the lobby."

"She didn't show any sign of extreme memory loss or anything like that. Aside from… well, her apparent memory loss when it comes to Red Eye," Nagisa frowned, feeling a surge of annoyance inside his chest. He had been doing that a lot these days. "Besides, if the two of them really tried to erase their own track, do you think they would be so amateurish to leave behind camera footages?"

"But whoever did this erased Robert's info from the hotel's guest system, and apparently they have a way to remove a part of your memory without touching the others," Itona said. "But they left the footages alone. So are they amateurs or not?"

"Beat me," Nagisa sighed while continuing to inspect other footages from several different cameras, following Red Eye's steps as he finished checking in, and was shown the way to his room by one of the bellmen. The last video showed him closing the door of room 406 behind his back.

"I need to check out this room," said Nagisa. "In Red Eye's last report to Lovro before he disappeared, he hinted at something strange going on with the target, and the contract might be more difficult than we thought. Knowing him, he might have left something for the reinforcement to find if he believed himself to be in danger."

"A little far fetched, but…"

"No, Nagisa is right," Ritsu interrupted Itona before he could finish his sentence. "After Smog's disappearance, Red Eye has every reason to fear for his own safety. I don't know if he really left something for us, but it's worth a try. When are you going to do this?"

"Tonight, if that room isn't occupied already. If it is, we will wait until the guest staying there check out. I don't want to be seen entering that room, so I have to go through the window when it's dark."

"I still have access to their cameras. I can whip up some fake footages to cover for you," Ritsu suggested.

"No, just walking through the hallway alone is already risking to be seen," Nagisa shook his head. "Enough of that for now. Have you found anything else about Bellatrix?"

"Surprisingly… No," Ritsu said, obviously disappointed. "There isn't much, if any, information about her floating around, which is quite a surprise, given how she is one of the most wanted criminals. There are some articles following her prison break, warning people that she's dangerous and may carry weapon. However, at the time of her being sent to prison, around the winter of 1981, everything appeared to be swept under the rug. No mention of her crime at all on any media outlet during that period, not even news about a trial."

"Weird… So people didn't even know about her until after she broke out," Nagisa was deep in thought as he stared straight ahead, but not actually taking in the scenery anymore. "Anything about her family? Or her husband's?"

"That's not public information, so unless you can connect me to one of General Register Office's computers, it's near impossible to find out."

"I'll take care of things on that end. You just worry about getting into Red Eye's room," Itona said and stood up. Nagisa followed suit. The two of them then walked together back to their place.

"If we can find out about her family and where she used to live, there might be some clues. Who knows, Red Eye and Smog might have been thinking the same," came Ritsu's voice before Itona turned off his phone's speaker mode and put on his earphone, leaving Nagisa alone with his thoughts.

* * *

During the late hours of the night, a hooded figure was approaching the hotel at the end of the street with one goal in mind - room 406. He was leaping across rooftops, vaulting over obstacles like they were nothing, never breaking his stride. There was no hesitation in his movements, despite the fact that just one mistake, and he would plunge to his death in one of the dark alleys below. A final, big jump sent the young man toward the outer wall of the hotel, where he grabbed the edge of a window, before started scaling the building, heading toward his destination.

_Lucky me, _thought Nagisa in his assassin 'uniform', as he peered through the window of room 406 to find a dark, unused room. He then glanced around, making sure that no one could spot him. The darkness of the night was covering for him, but it never hurt to be careful. He then used a strap from his belt to secure himself against the building, before pulling out his tools and started picking the window's lock.

Much to Nagisa's dismay, lockpicking wasn't one of his fortes. When he finally heard that sweet 'Click' before the window swung open, almost ten minutes had passed, which was too long for his liking. He didn't stop to berate himself, but wasted no time to get into the room instead. After making sure that the window was closed and the thick curtains were pulled over it, Nagisa covered the peephole and took out his own towel from his small backpack, putting that against the crack under the room's door. Once he made sure that the light from his flashlight couldn't escape, he turned it on and started scanning the room for any sight of his fellow assassin.

Obviously, if Red Eye had left them any clue, he wouldn't have left it where it could easily be found by the room maids that would come to clean up once in awhile, so any obvious spots like under the bed, behind the TV or inside of any cupboard or drawer were out.

With that in mind, Nagisa started by checking for any loose brick along the base of the wall, as well as under the carpet of any hard to reach spots that would easily be ignored when one was dusting the room. When nothing turned up, he went over to the bed and pick up the pillows, trying to see if there was anything _inside _of it. The house maids might change the pillow covers regularly, but not the pillows itself.

Still, it wasn't such a surprise when he found nothing there.

Not being discouraged, Nagisa resumed his search. After scanning every nook and cranny that he thought was a possible hiding spot in the main room, he moved to the bathroom and the first thing he did was to pick the lock of the cabinet under the sink. That was where all the piping went. Unless there was some major water problem, no one would ever think of opening that place. Much to his disappointment, when the light shone through all the complex pipes and valves inside, it revealed nothing out of ordinary.

_Still, that leaves one spot, _Nagisa thought to himself as he locked the cabinet and stood up, before walking toward the toilet and opened its tank.

"Bingo," a grin made its way onto his face as he saw a cell phone taped to the inside of the tank. However, his grin soon turned into a frown, then a deep grimace as he took the cell phone out and saw that it was badly damaged. Something had busted the battery, which in turn melted its back cover and one of the lower edges. Obviously, in that condition, it could no longer be turned on.

"Let's see if Itona can repair this," Nagisa sighed and pocketed the broken phone. After making sure that no trace of him was left behind, he exited the room via its window and returned to their base.

* * *

Around the same time, inside a private booth of a cafe near the GRO, sat another young man with wild spiky hair and a bulky laptop on the table in front of him. Next to it was a cup of coffee, which was left untouched.

At the moment, Itona Horibe had no interest in drinking coffee. Two of his drones were making their way through the night sky of London, one heading toward an air vent of the GRO, the other to their basement, where the security office was located. The latter was in Itona's direct control, which was what he was doing right now, while Ritsu was taking care of the former.

"If only I could increase the control range of these drones…" mumbled Itona. "It's much safer to do this from our base than in a public place like this."

"We take what we can get," Ritsu's voice coming out from his earpiece. "It takes time to improve on something like this when you're working solo. Besides, these are loads better than the ones you used to spy on us girls back in middle school…" She paused for a moment before adding. "...pervert."

At least Itona had enough grace to blush at that statement.

"Say, is it just me or the security looks a little bit too tight for something like GRO?" He asked. A shameless attempt at changing the topic. Lucky for him, Ritsu was merciful enough to let it pass.

"Apparently, someone broke into the office a few days ago. It was all over the news before we arrived. Maybe I was right after all, Red Eye really was here."

"No, I think it was Smog. Red Eye wouldn't let his work get discovered in the first place," Itona sighed. While he admire Smog's brutal efficiency and his chemistry knowledge, discretion and subtlety were never that bastard's strong points. "At least, we seem to be on the right track."

"Hmm… Alright, I'm there."

Itona's eyes flicked to the part of the screen showing what Ritsu's drone was seeing. It had landed on the roof of the GRO and was in the progress of unscrewing an air vent cover. He then turned his attention back to his own drone's window.

"Almost there, just a sec."

He landed the drone on its wheels, near the basement's entrance and drove it inside. The security office was right in front of it, but Itona was forced to change course twice, hiding it under some cars as a couple of guards on patrol walked by. After the drone finally reached a good spot to observe what was going on inside the room through an open window, it was time to play the waiting game.

"He's bound to get out and go to the bathroom or something. We've got all night," said Itona as he leaned back against the armchair he was sitting on. His eyes not leaving the screen, which was showing a man in security uniform watching the camera feeds on various screens every once in awhile, before returning to the movie he was watching on a smaller screen on his desk.

"I'm already inside the air vent. It'll take awhile to find my way to the front counter. The computer there should do," Ritsu said. "Also, Nagisa just returned. He found a phone that Red Eye left behind, but it's damaged. He's asking if you can repair it."

"How bad?"

"Busted battery, melted back cover and a corner of the phone."

"Well… That's bad…" Itona hesitated. "If the battery didn't cause any other damage to the phone's internal hardware, then maybe. I'll need to open it up, so no promise."

"Got it. I'll tell him to leave it in your room and get some rest."

"That would be best. Thank you," Itona nodded and finally grabbed the coffee cup, took a sip from it, and almost spit out the content all over his laptop. "Ugh… lukewarm coffee… And that guy's not even drinking anything. Just when is he going to take his bathroom break?"

* * *

As it turned out, it wasn't until almost an hour later, after finished watching two more episodes of some show that Itona couldn't see, that the security guy finally stood up from his chair, stretching his arms and back, before getting out of the office to get to the bathroom right next door. They only had a few minutes to act, but Itona, now with a new cup of coffee and a piece of chocolate cake, was ready.

After checking to see if the coast was clear, the drone rolled out from under the car it was hiding, switched to flight mode and get itself into the office through the open window. After taking a few seconds to check out the computer case inside the room, Itona made the drone pull out a cord from the compartment on his back and connected itself to the camera system. Immediately after the connection was established, a program that would bring Ritsu in there started uploading. On top of the desk, the screen on which the TV show was airing started jumping through various windows on its own until it found a folder safe enough to hide Ritsu's program, but of course, no one was there to do anything about it.

Everything settled down and the screen returned to normal after Itona's work was finished. The drone disconnected the cord and flew out of the window, back to its hiding spot just in time for the security guy to come back from his break. From now on, it was Ritsu's part. Just in case something seriously messed up their plan and the guy noticed something wrong with the camera feeds, then Itona's drone would use its built in stun gun to deal with him. It was obviously not a preferred course of action, since they didn't want to leave any trace behind, if possible.

"Thank you, Itona," Ritsu said as her drone started moving. During the past hour, she managed to find her way to right directly above the front counter, and had already unscrewed the cover. Since they didn't have time to prepare any fake camera footage, Ritsu's program was now showing the security guy a loop on the screen of the camera near the counter. As long as he didn't look too closely to notice the error of the time stamp, they would be fine.

"Nah, that guy won't notice a thing, still engrossed in his show," Itona said as he looked at his screen and took a bite from his cake.

"All good then. I'm going down," Ritsu removed the cover and flew down, searching for the computer case. Once it was found, she controlled the drone to disconnect the cable that linked to the screen above, before turning the computer on and, just as with Itona's drone, connected into it via a cord on its back. Again, everything only took a few minutes before Ritsu completed her work and returned everything to its original state.

"We're done. It'll take some time to sort through all of the data, but we're no longer required here. Let's go back," she told Itona.

"How long do you think it will take?" He asked while controlling his drone to go back to a bush near the cafe, waiting to be collected.

"A few hours, but the chance of we finding anything here is very slim, unless we're really lucky."

"How so?"

"This GRO only contains information about people from this district," Ritsu answered. "I can branch out to other offices from here, but it will take times."

"Will it get any faster if you have some more entry points from other districts?"

"Absolutely. I was going to suggest doing just that."

"Looks like we have a lot of work cut out for us then," Itona nodded as he closed the laptop. Both of their drones had just landed where he wanted. It was time to collect them and go home, so he could take a look at Red Eye's phone. Hopefully, that lead would give them more information faster than what they were doing.

"Not tonight though. Let's just go back for now. I'm tired," came Ritsu's cheerful voice as Itona paid for his food and drink.

"You are… tired? What?" He voiced his question after getting out of the cafe, a look of confusion on his face.

"Well, not really," Ritsu laughed. "I just thought you would get us home faster if I said that. But for your information, I can get 'tired' if my platform overheat, or if my power reserve is running low."

"Huh? Good to know," Itona blinked. "I need to take a better care of your platform then."

"...Pervert."

"What? What did I even say?"

* * *

On the following morning, instead of going out and buy something for breakfast, Nagisa chose to cook everything by himself since he was the first one in the house to wake up, not counting Ritsu. In truth though, there wasn't much cooking involved. It was more like putting together a breakfast, since there wasn't anything in the fridge at all. That reminded him that they might need to go grocery shopping if they didn't want to go out and eat all the time.

While he was munching on a piece of toast and jam, Nagisa heard the door to the dining room opened and looked up to see Itona, who was now wearing bags under his eyes, slid a cell phone across the table before dragging himself to the nearby sink.

"Good morning to you too," said Nagisa as he picked up the phone. "Is this Red Eye's phone?"

"Uh huh," Itona replied without turning around. "Gave it a new cover, new screen and everything. The data was saved without any loss."

"And I cracked his password," Ritsu's voice came from the ceiling. "Which is, surprisingly, _octopus _(in Japanese)."

"I can see why he is obsessed with Koro-sensei," Nagisa laughed. "Thanks, you two. And Itona, your breakfast is on the kitchen counter."

"Okaaay…." Itona said. "... And please save the laughter for later. My headache is killing me…"

He then into the kitchen, swaying slightly with each step.

"What happened to him?" Nagisa asked.

"Not a morning person, I assume," Ritsu answered with a hint of amusement in her voice. "I'm not sure what he did in his room all night though. I don't have free access there, just like with your room."

"Just finding some way to improve my drones, and fix that damn phone," Itona chose that moment to come back with his toast on a plate and a cup of coffee. "I don't know if Ritsu told you, but we will need to break in a few more GROs from other districts if we want to find information about Bellatrix's family faster."

"Huh? This is new," Nagisa blinked at the ceiling.

"Didn't get a chance to tell you last night then," Itona shrugged and took a seat on the opposite side of the table, directly in front of Nagisa. "That means we will have to get out of the house for a few more nights, and take a trip or two to the neighboring districts."

"I see. Well, work is work. The faster we finish this, the sooner we can really enjoy a vacation. But please take care when you go out. We still don't know exactly what is happening here," Nagisa shrugged and opened Red Eye's phone. "Did you go through whatever it is in here?"

"No, too tired," Itona shook his head, and judging by his grimace, he regretted that action immensely. "It got a lot of audio recordings in there though, and some text messages. The call history has been wiped, but I think it was Red Eye himself who did that. Everything except for the texts was encrypted with a program only Lovro's assassins would use. Well, that means Ritsu could, and did, decrypt it easily."

Nagisa nodded and hit the 'Play' button on the first recording, before setting the phone down on the table for everyone to hear. True enough, it was Red Eye's voice, and the recording began with a deep sigh.

* * *

"_Ahhh… I know work is work, and I'm not particularly picky when it comes to my partner. But Smog? Really Lovro? You don't have someone better? Guess I'll just finish this contract ASAP before enjoying the beauty of London, preferably without that creep."_

The voice paused for a few second, replaced by rustling noise of paper, before continuing.

"_Let's see. Pretty straight forward, someone wants this psycho bitch dead. No client information, that's a little iffy, but Lovro guaranteed that all the info on the target was correct. Little reason to doubt him here. It's not like he didn't give me the full picture when it came to that damn octopus or anything."_

* * *

The first recording ended there. Nagisa looked at Itona, shrugged, then hit the 'Next' button.

* * *

"_Smog. Is. A. Goddamn. Idiot! Bastard has the subtlety of a rampaging elephant. How hard it is to sneak into GRO, and then get out WITHOUT being noticed? It's GRO, not the Queen's bedroom, for the love of… Ugh…_

* * *

The recording was then cut off. It seemed like Red Eye was too frustrated to continue. Unfortunately, it didn't give them any information other than the fact that Smog was a moron, something they already knew. This time, Nagisa hit the 'Next' button immediately.

* * *

"_I've calmed down, and have finished digging through all the information that Smog has collected from various GROs. Didn't find anything, but that was to be expected. Smog followed a trail of that psycho's sightings, and collected the info from those places. Should have known that most sightings are often fakes, idiot._

_From the start, I've known that it was a dead end. We simply can't cover every GRO with just two people, but the idiot insisted, so I let him do what he wants. I have my own leads to follow. So we will do our own things, and see who can get to the target first._

* * *

"Interesting. So they weren't working together," Nagisa mused out loud. "Well, they hate each other enough to refuse to stay under the same roof, so…" He shrugged. "Let's just continue."

* * *

"_I've seen the target lurking in the dark alleys of Wiltshire. That's just to show how my info is much more reliable than Smog's. Still… It's strange. She looks every bit like the psycho bitch in the picture that I've been given. I've dealt with plenty of her kind before. But I just can't shake the feeling that she was… different. Is it because of the way she dresses, like it was a few decades back in the past? Or is it because I just can't keep my eyes on her. Something keeps distracting me. One moment she was there, the next, she was gone, disappeared into thin air after my eyes were diverted for a mere second. More than once, I had to look back as if she was going to appear right behind my back. You can laugh it up all you want..._

_Was I discovered? No, couldn't be. But unless I get a longer glimpse of her, I can't take the shot._

_Smog still isn't back from his latest GRO trip. Maybe I should inform him of my finding when he comes back? I don't like him, but I'm feeling a little uneasy."_

* * *

"Alright… Getting a little creepy there," Nagisa commented, frowning at the phone. "She disappeared into thin air? How does that event work?"

"A hidden door, maybe?" Ritsu guessed. "Or she was like Koro-sensei and Itona before he fully joined our class, having super speed?"

"No, I doubt that Red Eye wouldn't recognize something like that," Nagisa shook his head. "Besides, another modified human of that calibre is huge, Lovro would have warned us if that was the case."

"Like how he warned Red Eye about Koro-sensei?" Itona raised an eyebrow.

"Point taken," Nagisa raised his hands in resignation. "Still… Let's continue. There's a few more recordings."

* * *

"_Smog has gone missing. It's been days since we last exchange any kind of contact, an Lovro said that he couldn't reach the bastard either. Goddamnit. Did he really find something from the GRO after all?_

_Well, that's moot point now. It's too late for me to trace his steps. Besides, the target is still in Wiltshire. I managed to track her into a forest. But there, it gets even weirder. I can't enter that forest. Technically, I can, no one is stopping me, and there isn't any patrol or guard. But if I step in too far, something in my gut keeps telling me to come back, to get the hell out of there. I tried to ignore those feelings, but to no avail. The deeper I go, the stronger they become._

_I tried to keep my eyes on her as she walked into the forest, but I think this time she blinked out of existence right in front of my eyes. No, like hell I would believe that. It must be my eyes playing tricks on me._

_Just to be cautious, however, I should make a memo of the info that I've found so far, in the rare chance that my mind is being messed with."_

* * *

"That's definitely not normal," Itona frowned, now fully awake. "Did he inhale some kind of poison? Smog can easily create that kind of illusion, for once."

"You think they're sabotaging each other?" Nagisa asked.

"Hardly. Lovro would have their heads if that was the case," Itona said. "That and staging your own disappearance just to sabotage your fellow assassin is just going too far."

"That isn't to say that Red Eye wasn't poisoned," Ritsu chimed in. "Smog isn't the only chemist working in the underworld. The most talented, maybe, but not the only one. My guess is that Red Eye and Smog were compromised and the target was playing with them."

"That doesn't bode well for them, and us," Nagisa mumbled. "But they lured him to Wiltshire, there must be something there. I'll follow this lead while you take the GRO. Smog disappeared while on that trail, so it would be quite careless of us to discard it."

"But the poison?" Itona leaned forward, supporting his chin with his hands and looked at Nagisa. "We don't know how or when Red Eye was poisoned. It's not safe for you to take that lead. Let me and my drones handle it. You can't poison a drone."

"And I can't cover every GRO by myself," Nagisa sighed. "Never mind that. There's still one last recording, let's listen to that before we decide on anything."

"Agreed," Itona and Ritsu said in unison.

* * *

"_I...I don't know how to begin this. When I opened up my phone this morning, there are several other recordings of what I've been doing for the last few days. The thing is… I don't remember recording them._

_Smog disappeared? That can't be true. What was 'I' talking about? I remember meeting him just yesterday for lunch… No, wait, that doesn't feel right. I would never, ever, ever, have a meal together with that idiot if I could help it. Besides, when I came over earlier, he wasn't there. His lab looked untouched, but I didn't think much of it, until now._

_Has he really gone missing? Hold on, let me listen to the rest of the recordings…"_

The current recording was paused for a brief moment before Red Eye resumed it.

"_Wiltshire? I don't remember going there, nor do I remember seeing Bellatrix. What I _do _remember though, is to help Smog sneaking in various GROs, but found nothing. This is odd, very odd. The 'me' in the recording is right. That GRO trail is a dead end that I can see from miles away. There's no way I would follow it, even if I turned out to be wrong at the end there._

_This is getting dangerous. Now that I've listened to those recordings over and over, I'm sure that it was me who recorded them. The fact that I can't remember any of it can only mean one thing - I'm busted. Though why they only settled with replacing my memory is still a mystery._

_Doesn't matter, I'm not planning on abandoning this contract. But they're getting much closer than what a sniper like me would have liked. It's time to relocate. Smog's disappearance has been reported to Lovro, and he will send reinforcement. _

_So, my fellow assassins, I'm sure that you will find this phone if you're looking for me. Check the text messages that I sent to my 'mother', 'father', and 'cousin James'. Read them carefully. 'Mother' will tell you the locations of my other hideouts that I've prepared in case I got busted. 'Father' knows the name of the forest in Wiltshire that I mentioned, and various addresses where I spotted Bellatrix, briefly or not. 'James' has the login information of a secure email address that contains a list of every GRO that Smog has already checked out. It will save you a lot of time if you're going after him._

_Heh, isn't past me amazing? He thought of everything. Make sure to thank me properly once we meet. Peace._

* * *

"Great, another case of memory loss. He even got new memories in place of those," Nagisa grimaced. "I'll be honest. This is getting a little too interesting for my first independent mission."

"Agreed," Itona said as he stared at the phone. Nothing was too extreme for them after dealing with a world destroying octopus, but at least there was no real danger back in those days. Well, there were a few occasions that came close, but they had guidance and protection of the adults. Now though… Now, they were the adults.

"No use getting all depressed now, I guess," Nagisa sighed. "Red Eye and Smog are depending on us, the reinforcement, so we can't just pack up and leave. Smog I don't care much about, but Red Eye is a friend."

"At least he's still safe until the day of that last recording, which is…" Itona nodded and looked at the phone. "... three days ago."

"So in addition to the GRO and Wiltshire, now we need to check out his list of hideouts as well," Ritsu commented. "Nagisa, you should take this one. Itona can handle the Wiltshire side, and I'll take care of the GROs. With Smog's list, the amount of work on this front will be greatly reduced. Well, it will be better if Itona can lend me one of his drones."

"Of course, I'll let you keep the one you used last night," Itona nodded.

"Thank you."

"No objection from me," Nagisa smiled. "Just be careful and keep in contact. If you feel that you're in danger, even just a little bit, please call for backup."

After a round of agreement from Itona and Ritsu, the group broke up. Nagisa and Itona returned to their own room to prepare for the work ahead.

Finally, they were getting somewhere.

**End of Chapter 1.**

_**A/N: **_**Thank you for reading. It's a little different from the other stories that I've seen in this section, but I hope it's good enough. Not much of any real action, or magic here yet, but we'll get to that.**

**Also, as you can see, the time period in which Assassination Classroom took place, and the level of technology in this story is changed to fit with what I want to write. Some of the things in here either didn't exist yet, or wasn't very widespread during the early and mid 90s. Just a fair warning, and I hope that it doesn't take much out of your immersion.**

**Thanks again.**


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